Record high freight rates are creating more headaches for traders looking to house millions of barrels of unsold crude oil and who already face potential losses due to record high stocks.

They have to decide on whether to use tankers for longer term storage until they can sell their cargoes, or dump them at even more discounted prices in order to keep wells running.

This is expected to come at a bigger cost as rates for supertankers have soared - hitting their highest since 2008 at over US$100,000 a day last month and currently around US$70,000 a day.

Some have already been caught out with extra oil, and had no choice but to keep it on vessels.